Fabric: new app from ex-Facebook developers could solve social media’s problems

Fabric is everything Facebook is not 
Preserve precious memories with this new social app
Amelia Heathman31 July 2018

Social media is inherently complicated in 2018. We have been all advised to #DeleteFacebook but we’re still clinging on.

Why is this?

Social media is like a scrapbook for the digitally native generation. We’re using it as a way to keep in touch with our families and friends yes, but we’re also using it as a way to preserve our lives.

We don’t send letters anymore or print out photographs, instead, our memories are woven into Facebook messages and Instagram posts.

And with the backlash against Facebook, we’re all wondering what we’re going to do with these digital anecdotes.

A new social app, from two former Facebook developers, Fabric, is here to protect these memories. The team built some of Facebook’s major features, such as Timeline, On This Day, Year in Review and Friendship Page, all elements of the social network that enshrine your activities forever.

“We started Fabric with a bold mission: to help people remember more of their life stories. We believe everyone’s story is important and everyone should be able to reconnect with the uniquely meaningful experiences in their lives,” explains Fabric’s founder Arun Vijayvergiyain in a blog post.

After initially launching last year, Fabric has just received a major upgrade to make it the social app antidote to the other platforms out there.

Here’s how it works...

What does Fabric look like?

Fabric looks similar to any other app social app; it’s slick with clean lines and the necessary Timeline feature that all social apps depend on, apart from Snapchat.

However, instead of posting a status update or an image, posts take the form of stories or a Moment.

In a similar way to how you create a story on Instagram, you can build a Moment on Fabric’s app, that includes locations, photos, people and anecdotes of what happened.

The Fabric app has a timeline which allows you to post Moments
Fabric

Search your memories

The app lets you “jump into your past” to explore and relive shared and individual moments you’ve posted on the app.

If you’re friends with someone on the platform, you can view your history with them as well as turn on auto tagging, so you can be automatically tagged in memories with them. But this is only if you allow it. For the rest of the time, your memories are private unless you choose to share them with someone specifically or on your timeline.

You can create Memories based on certain locations. If you like to travel, you can create a mini scrapbook of each trip with different images and places you visited tagged on a map.

These memories are all indexed on the app to make it searchable. If you search for something like “Italy restaurant 2017” then you can find the exact restaurant you visited last year.

As well, Fabric says you can import memories from Facebook, Instagram and your Camera Roll to make the results more complete.

Search through your Moments to find specific memories
Fabric

What about privacy?

The social media landscape in 2018 has taught us that privacy is more important than anything. That’s why Fabric is private by default. Everything is created in-house, such as its location system so things like location data aren’t going to third-parties.

As well, there is no advertising on the app so no data is shared with marketers and advertisers.

Curate your memories into Moments on Fabric
Fabric

It also uses industry standard encryption for data transfer and storage.

Fabric wants you to collate your memories together and for you to look at them, and only share them with your friends if you want to.

How can I use it?

The app is available to download only on iOS at the moment. But, there is a Fabric desktop web version, which is currently in beta.

In the future, Fabric will make money by charging users subscription fees, but at the moment the app remains free to use.

It’s an interesting time to be in social media. This week already, Game of Thrones actor Maisie Williams has launched a new social app, named Daisie, which is like an online portfolio for creatives. And another app that’s been hyped in a big way this year is Unfold, a way to craft your Instagram Stories in a beautifully-curated display.

We want to curate more than consume when it comes to social media, and Fabric looks like a perfect way to do that.

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